Happy with a Hint of Sadness

Happy...

Let it Snow!

It doesn't get much better for my kids than waking up to a garden full of snow :) It's not like they've never seen it before, it's just that it happens all too rarely for their liking here. So I was met from my slumbers with a request to postpone school for half an hour so they could play in the snow. Of course I was not going to deny them that - I was always so resentful of school when the snow would always be melted by playtime! :( I must admit I was not ungrateful for that extra half hour to change & dress N, shower myself, dress and drink a cup of coffee. I'm thinking 9.30 might be a good idea in the ordinary run of things, or is that me being disorganised and lazy? Perhaps I could maybe get up half an hour earlier instead - just maybe..!
Anyway, enjoy the pictures. Some were taken first thing by Jake (our old camera is pretty good!) and some on the way home from Playgroup run at lunchtime. It was a gorgeous sunny day, but cold enough for the snow to stay put and even tonight there is still significant coverage. It was that strange kind of snow that falls silently and like dust, so it was far too crumbly to make anything with in the way of snowmen or balls, but it did make pretty snow angels and glistened beautifully in the sunlight :) Each of them got through two pairs of gloves today (or one pair wet twice), but they all had a lovely time of it! 
School went OK for a first day back. We started our new 'Squarcle board' time;

From Let it Snow!

 We didn't cover everything on it today - bit-by-bit, day-by-day is the plan :) Motivation was not that strong for anything though, but I think everyone did at least a little of everthing they were required to. Phoebe did the most dawdling today - not sure what her problem was, but I know I didn't give her hardly enough attention today. I did however manage to do some real 'work' with the smaller ones. C did some 'same/different' work and was suprisingly perceptive with that, which pleased me. He also spent some time on Starfall and Ed' city (as well as playgroup), so he really packed it in today!! E did some very easy shapes work and also made a start on 'r' in her ABC lapbook. Today's activity was to learn the colours of the rainbow and the acronym to help her; Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain. Of course I had to explain a little of what that saying actually meant without going into a full history lesson! She enjoyed learning the phrase and seemed to understand the concept OK. I wonder if she will remember it at all tomorrow?! After that she seemed to do a very good job of not being noticed that she wasn't around! Ho-hum, she's a sneeky one! She did reappear though when I got out lotto & picture pairs to play with C and joined in nicely with my 'tot-school' time :) When she'd had enough of that she ACCF'd. She can't read yet, so I'm not sure how much educational value there is in the game for her atm (not that she was on it during school time - far too distracting for the rest of us!!), but she loves it and I actually wonder whether there aren't 'life skills' to be learnt from it - like conversation: how people are affected by what we say to them (and what we infer), and the principles of 'money makes the world go round and you have to work to earn it and get along'. She likes to wander around aimlessly, but then gets frustrated when she can't have a make over, or buy a pretty hat (like mine!), so she is learning that she has to work and sell to get the bells to pay for the stuff she wants. Then there is the very obvious issue of understanding whether she has enough bells for what she wants. She seems to be able to recognise the difference between 60 and 6,450 - ie that one is a big number and therefore a LOT of bells and one is a small number - which means she doesn't have enough! I know that seems REALLY obvious, but numbers are not concrete in a 5yo mind, so I think this is quite a good concept for her to grasp and hopefully it will encourage her number recognition and maybe even advance her to a basic understanding of number placement without her even knowing! My boys learnt number placement playing top-trumps mainly, so why not ACCF :) I hope that it will help my bigger girls improve their understanding of p.v. too.
Jake was doing some work on Gravitational Potential energy today (droping ping-pong balls into flour from various heights). He enjoyed that and I was wondering about dropping him into a educational session when we do our meet-up at Manchester Science Museum as they do a KS3 one on gravity :)
With a Hint of Sadness...
We received news this evening that Paul's grandad died at teatime :( His nan died Jan 8th last year, so it is almost exactly a year since. He was just biding time really, having suffered a major stroke 6 years ago and then losing his wife a year ago after over 50 years together - he really had not much to live for anymore and was longing to go to his life in Heaven. He was well and on good form over Christmas, but then went down with D&V just after. He recovered, only to be immediatly struck down (quite suddenly) with Pneumonia. Initially it seemed he would recover, but after 4 days of IV Antibiotics and no improvement they decided to let nature take it's course - in whatever direction it chose. He died peacefully at 5.15pm today. The man who was one of the founders of this Hampton Dynasty has gone to be with his Lord at last :) It is sad, but in many ways we only rejoice as we know that he will be MUCH happier where he is gone. :)
Goodbye Great Grandad - Be at Peace.
(taken July 03)